


Words Unspoken

by tour_treasure



Category: Cycling RPF
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 10:58:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1093072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tour_treasure/pseuds/tour_treasure
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes reality gets in the way of dreams, and some conversations are never as simple as they first appear.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Words Unspoken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Roadstergal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Roadstergal/gifts).



“You have a big heart, Jens.”

Those were the words his wife had spoken when he’d told her about what had happened today. He didn’t doubt her assessment of him, they’d known each other long enough to know she wouldn’t humour him, especially in this sort of situation. He just wasn’t sure that it would be enough. Was there anything that could really help at a time like this?

Sure it was something that Andy would get over given time but right now they didn’t have time. They weren’t finished and as much as they could be optimistic it would be rather baseless. Everyone knew the obstacles that stood in their way and to pretend it was any other way would do a great disservice to both men in the equation, or all three of them if you counted Fränk, which he probably should do, but that wouldn’t help with his current dilemma to make things less complicated.

Keep things simple, keep the yellow jersey happy. Yeah, right, like that was going to be an easy feat. Jens sighed and wondered if they could somehow not go to the stage tomorrow. Maybe they could cancel it? He’d never been one to back away from the difficult situations but right now he’d rather not have to deal with a distraught Andy.

What if his wife was wrong? She’d told him that he would know what to do when the time came but he wasn’t so sure. He glanced up when Fränk approached him looking somewhat unsure. “How’s Andy?” he asked.

“Exhausted,” Fränk responded.

It seemed like a normal day, as though this were a situation that he could come across on any usual race. The problem was the Tour de France wasn’t a usual race and nothing that happened could ever be considered ‘normal’.

Jens looked up at the elder Schleck and knew the dilemma the other man was faced with. He hadn’t thought about how this might be affecting Fränk, the difficulty of wanting something that would upset a member of his immediate family. They were together and whatever the outcome Jens knew it would be better than that year Fränk wasn’t at the Tour with his brother. In the end they would be all right but it was just this moment before it happened, the not knowing, where they were forced to acknowledge what they wanted may be at the expense of the other.

He noted the tension in Fränk’s frame and decided he could definitely help remove some of that, for a while at least because tomorrow would bring more challenges. Fränk needed a moment to acknowledge how much he wanted this because when it came down to it Jens knew that if it were possible Fränk would sacrifice his chances for Andy. He also knew that there was someone who would be far better at this than him. “He sleeping?” he asked.

“He was but how long he’ll stay like that is anyone’s guess.”

“Why don’t you go-?” Jens gestured with a hand trying to convey his message.

Fränk looked back towards the room he shared with his brother and then in the opposite direction towards a room he’d quite like to frequent for a little while. “I can keep Andy company for an hour or two,” he continued.

Fränk took a step in the direction of the way he’d gestured and then looked back towards where his brother was. “I’ll sit on him if I have to,” Jens offered.

Fränk’s lips twisted into something that on another day might have ended up a smile but now and turned more into a grimace. “Go on,” he urged. “It’ll be fine.”

Fränk nodded and began to move along the floor of the hotel. He watched as Fränk knocked on a door that was open soon after and then disappeared inside the room. Jens headed in the other direction and into Andy’s room.

The younger Schleck was sleeping somewhat peacefully. He wasn’t entirely sure it would help later if Andy couldn’t get to sleep again but maybe the younger man would be tired enough to sleep through until tomorrow morning without getting awkward. He had quite enough practise of that at home thank you very much. He sat down on Fränk’s bed and wondered if he should have brought a book with him or something. “Jensie?”

He looked over to Andy at the quiet sound of his name and he was faced with a confused expression. “Fränk’s-”

“I’m glad,” Andy interrupted before he could come up with a suitable excuse to explain Fränk’s absence. “He deserves a distraction.”

“You want one?”

Andy gave him an odd look he couldn’t interpret and then sat up. “I always thought it would go better.”

He wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that because he hadn’t expected the somewhat defeated tone. It was a huge difference to the public optimism that had been on display only hours ago. Then again replies to the press questions regarding the Time Trial were never going to elicit any other response. Cadel had been lucky and managed to dodge them, Andy had nowhere to hide as the current wearer of the maillot jaune. Sometimes enough well placed questions could pierce even the strongest of resolves.

Tomorrow might bring an unexpected result, especially if the previous stages were anything to go by, but if not reality and the wished for result would be at somewhat opposite ends of the spectrum. He knew that at the end of the day as long as Andy didn’t hold anything back then tomorrow there would be celebrations of one kind or another. “I don’t understand,” Jens said in the end because he really had no clue what the right response was.

“The Tour, wearing the yellow jersey....Life,” Andy added almost as an afterthought.

That wasn’t entirely what he was expecting and Jens wasn’t quite sure he was prepared for that conversation. He supposed he could come up with something that would be comforting if required but Andy always had a habit of surprising him when he least expected it. “What were you expecting? Tickertape and podium girls?”

He got a minute smile at that and he knew that soon enough this would pass, if he could just distract Andy long enough. “Well, I wouldn’t have said no....”

He wasn’t sure there were a lot of people that would say no to that sort of thing. He shook his head in disbelief anyway because he knew it was somewhat expected and then he got up so he could sit on Andy’s bed instead of Fränk’s. “Maybe if you’re really lucky it’ll happen,” he said.

“When I dream about it?”

Andy closed the gap between them until they were touching shoulder to thigh. He wrapped an arm around the younger man and it was almost as though he could feel the melancholy mood descend again.

He leant over and kissed the top of Andy’s head almost automatically and heard the quiet sound Andy made at the contact. Maybe a hug would solve the matter, or at least keep those thoughts at bay for a while at least. “What if it all goes wrong tomorrow?”

“Then it goes all wrong.”

Answering that question was easy because the answer was relatively black and white. Tomorrow wouldn’t define Andy any more than today had. What had happened on the Col du Galibier, maybe, but not today.

There was no immediate response to that and he hoped that was going to be the end of the doubts even if only those voiced. Jens didn’t like it when Andy was like this, he missed the inquisitive mind and the distraction it provided if nothing else. Being away from family was tough even if he got to temporarily spend time with his cycling one. “I don’t want it to go wrong,” Andy whispered.

“Either way you’ll still be Andy. Or maybe Fränk and Andy,” Jens teased.

“Andy the three time runner up of the Tour?”

Jens hesitated because they both knew that could be the outcome of tomorrow. Fränk would probably have an answer all made up already and would be able to respond immediate. Unfortunately he’d volunteered to take on this responsibility so he’d have to come up with something good. “What are you going to have for breakfast tomorrow?” Jens asked instead.

“Tomorrow will depend what I manage to wrestle off everyone else.”

“As long as it’s not my breakfast I don’t care.”

“You really want to give me ideas?”

If there was one thing Andy didn’t need it was help coming up with ideas of how to steal somebody else’s breakfast. “You could always ask your parents to bring you something.”

“I’ve already put in my order but we’re not going to see them until we get to Paris.”

“Are you looking forward to seeing them?”

“Always.”

“Got plans with your friends yet or are they going to surprise you when you get back?”

“We’ll see how things go, might be the weekend until I see some of them.”

Jens didn’t think that was very likely, Andy would be on the phone demanding they come over at some point. That or Fränk was going to be doing it when Andy drove him crazy. “Have you thought about what you’re going to do after this?” Andy asked out of the blue.

“See the family though it’ll be a school day so I won’t get dragged straight out somewhere when I get back.”

“That’s what happens when you get old, you lose your stamina.”

Jens raised an eyebrow and saw the smile Andy tried to hide. Maybe this wouldn’t take too long after all. “I mean when you give up cycling.”

When he called time on his career he was going to go home and spend time with his family. He was going to adjust to life without the bike, at least the way it dominated now. After that he wasn’t sure but he knew he’d figure it out. “No idea but since I’ve not retired just yet I don’t have to have that answer just yet. Getting another job will have to be high up the list though so I’ll have to put some thought in to it.”

“You mean you’re not going to just up and retire tomorrow?”

“We’re not finished this Tour yet and you’re already trying to get me to retire?” he teased.

Andy looked up at him with an odd look of longing that didn’t go with the way this conversation was going. “I want what you have,” Andy confessed quietly.

“Creaky joints?” he quipped.

Those were going to happen anyway and they were definitely not something he would have put on the top of his wish list. Then again he could always just tell them to shut up, his legs seemed to listen to them. “A family.”

Sometimes with Andy he got the impression he wasn’t having the conversation he thought he was. This was definitely one of those times. Maybe one day they’d have that talk but now wasn’t the time. He wasn’t sure if Andy even knew what it was he wanted to say, at least past the initial comment. “You’re talking like your life is going to end tomorrow. Either way you’ll get up on Sunday and again on Monday. Though if I know you maybe not so early on Monday.”

“I have missed being able to sleep late.”

Andy looked away from him and bit his lip making Jens frown. It shouldn’t be causing that much of a problem; they’d been at it for nearly 3 weeks now. Sometimes Andy could be incredibly frustrating. “You might have mentioned that once or twice,” was the response Jens with because anything else could get them into awkward territory again.

“Hey!” Andy objected. “Just when I was contemplating giving you my lion and everything!”

Jens glanced around the room briefly but couldn’t see the lion anywhere. “Bet you couldn’t find it in this mess.”

“Now I’m definitely stealing your breakfast,” Andy muttered and snuggled closer.

With a head now on his shoulder and an arm slug across his chest, Andy was giving every indication that moving wasn’t going to be high on the priority list any time soon. He concluded they had time and there was only likely to be another day like this before they had to return to their families and the lives they’d essentially put on hold. “I’m glad you’re here, Jens,” Andy murmured against his neck.

“Nowhere else I’d rather be.”


End file.
